Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, repeatedly implied he and his wife used IVF procedures in order to conceive their children. However, the couple never used IVF.
According to both the New York Times and CNN, the Harris-Walz campaign recently disclosed that Walz and his wife, Gwen, did not use IVF to conceive their children. Instead, the couple used a very different procedure called IUI. For months, Walz had been heavily implying that he and his wife used IVF to conceive their children.
IVF stands for “In vitro fertilization.” The procedure involves the repeated creation and subsequent destruction of human life. In the procedure, a woman’s eggs are collected and artificially fertilized by sperm samples in a lab. Eventually, one of those human embryos is placed inside the woman; the unused embryos are destroyed, used for research, or frozen.
IUI, which stands for “intrauterine insemination,” is a very different procedure that does not involve the repeated destruction of human embryos. In short, IUI is an artificial insemination procedure where sperm is placed into the woman’s uterus via a catheter.
Throughout the last several months, Walz has repeatedly implied that he and his wife used IVF in order to conceive their first child.
In a March 2024 social media post, Walz said “Reproductive care like IVF is deeply personal to so many families. My wife, Gwen, and I have two incredible kids because of it.”
On a MSNBC appearance several weeks ago, Walz said, “Thank god for IVF. My wife and I have two beautiful children.”
Earlier this year, Walz was on a podcast speaking about GOP vice-presidential candidate JD Vance and delivered a rambling quote in which he said, “First of all, if it was up to him I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF and the things that we need to do reproductive, my kids were born through that direc-, you know that way.”
According to the New York Times, Walz’s gubernatorial campaign sent out a campaign fundraising letter which stated outright that the couple used IVF. “My wife and I used I.V.F. to start a family,” the letter said.
Vance responded to the reports by saying: “Today it came out that Tim Walz had lied about having a family via IVF. Who lies about something like that?”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
